From left: Crane owner James Lomma and the Azure at 333 East 91st Street

[Updated at 1:42 p.m. with comments and details from the courtroom] In a move that caught many by surprise, the owner of a crane that collapsed at an Upper East Side condominium in 2008 killing two people was acquitted of all the charges against him today, including manslaughter.

James Lomma was found not guilty of six counts by Judge Daniel Coviser in a packed courtroom in Lower Manhattan, bringing an end to a high-profile and emotionally fraught two-month criminal trial. [more]

James Lomma

The case against he owner of the crane that collapsed in 2008 is winding down, the Associated Press reported, as the final prosecutor summations were delivered today. Prosecuters accuse owner James Lomma of being a cold-hearted businessman who greedily commissioned a spotty, cost-saving repair of a crucial component of the crane and hid it from inspectors. [more]

Azure crane collapse

In testimony today in the manslaughter trial of James Lomma, owner of the crane that collapsed in May 2008 during construction of the Azure, deceased construction worker Donald Leo Jr.’s father took the stand, the New York Daily News reported.

Leo held back tears as he recounted his trip uptown to see his son after he was told about the accident, at 333 East 91st Street, at First Avenue, which killed two people. [more]

New York Crane owner James Lomma (credit: Shayna Jacobs for DNAinfo)

The owner of the crane that crashed at the Azure condo in 2008, killing two people, is a cold-hearted businessman more concerned with collecting $50,000 a month in equipment fees than protecting workers, prosecutors said today at the start of his trial.

“They were killed because one man valued his profit over the safety of others,” said Eli Cherkasky, an assistant district attorney, in a packed room inside of Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan. [more]

Pre-trial proceedings in the 2008 Upper East Side crane collapse manslaughter case will be held in open court, the judge has decided, according to the New York Post.

Concerns from prosecutors and victims’ families convinced Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser to make hearing, crane company owner James Lomma’s hearing, on second-degree manslaughter charges, public, the Post said. The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at 10 a.m. The collapse at the Azure, at 333 East 91st Street, at First Avenue, involved a crane owned by Lomma’s company, New York Crane and Equipment Corporation.
[more]

The crane collapse at the Azure and New York Crane owner James LommaAn employee of New York Crane, the company that operated the crane that collapsed at the Azure in 2008, plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide and agreed to testify against the owner of the company to avoid a second-degree manslaughter charge that carries a 15-year prison sentence.

According to court documents obtained by the New York Times, Tibor Varganyi was charged with finding a manufacturer to repair the turntables of some of New York Crane’s equipment. He chose a firm in China over two United States companies, because New York Crane owner James Lomma thought the domestic companies couldn’t complete the job fast enough. [more]

From left to right: David Greczek and Ammanda Espinal, on-site sales agents for Azure; Karen Mansour of Prudential Douglas Elliman;
John Caiazzo of the DeMatteis Organization; and Doug MacLaury of the Mattone Group (standing). Right: Azure at 333 East 91st Street.

From the July issue: A luxury apartment building towering 34 boxy stories above low-rise Yorkville shops, Azure has always been nondescript by design, and yet theatrically imposing in reality.
Launched in 2007, the project was aimed at Manhattan’s growing population of families. Marketing materials emphasized child-oriented neighborhood amenities and focused on the customizable, three-, four- and five-bedroom units on offer. Azure was not meant to excite comment; however, time and again, it has failed.
In May 2008, five months after Azure’s initial sales launch, a 200-foot crane collapsed at the site of the project, killing two construction workers, forcing a temporary shutdown of then-agent Nancy Packes’ marketing efforts, and sealing the building’s fate as headline fodder in the still ongoing legal saga that followed. (Crane owner James Lomma is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after a judge turned down his bid to have the case dismissed.) [more]

From left: Crane owner James Lomma and the Azure at 333 East 91st Street

The owner of the crane company implicated in the deadly 2008 collapse at the Upper East Side’s Azure is suing the construction company that had rented his crane for $1.1 million in damages, the Post reported. The owner, James Lomma, is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after a judge turned down his bid to get the case dismissed last month. He and mechanic Tibor Varganyi were accused of arranging for a cheap welding job on the 200-foot-tall crane, which failed after a month of use. [more]

A judge has upheld manslaughter charges against an owner and a mechanic in connection with a rig collapse at a construction site that killed two workers on the Upper East Side in May 2008, CBS reported. The judge today turned down the defendants’ bid to get the case dismissed and the case is now headed for a trial this spring or summer. Prosecutors said owner James Lomma and mechanic Tibor Varganyi arranged for a cheap welding job on a 200-foot-tall crane at the site of the Azure cond-op at 333 East 91st Street. [more]

The crane company charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide this week for a 2008 crane collapse on the Upper East Side is still operating three tower cranes in New York City, according to the Downtown Express. The cranes, located at the World Trade Center site, the former Deutsche Bank building and at Milstein Properties’ Liberty Luxe condo in Battery Park City, are inspected regularly and are a different type than the one that killed two and injured one when it collapsed during the construction of the Azure condominium on East 91st Street in May 2008, the Department of Buildings said. The operator, New York Crane & Equipment, was indicted along with owner James Lomma and former mechanic Tibor Varganyi and pleaded guilty to the charges Monday. [Downtown Express]